New Sigma 150/600 (8 Viewers)

[Barred Wobbler]

It's one that has been attracting attention for a while, but I've not bothered with it. I went there this morning just expecting to go to the hide, but as I got out of the car in the car park the owl was hunting in the field just over the wall, not more than 30 yards away.

Right place, right time.

 

[Barred Wobbler]

Focus Limiter Switch

Am I missing something here?

There were times on my trip last week that I realised after the event that I'd been taking photos of a close bird just after some distant flying stuff and I'd forgotten to reset the focus limiter from 10m-infinity. I expected that I'd be out of focus, so quickly reset the limiter switch to 'full' and reshot.

Conversely there were times when I'd been shooting something close with the limiter set to 2.6-10m and started shooting flying birds without changing.

Now I'd expect something called a limiter to actually set limits, but in the case of this lens are these 'hard' or 'soft' limits? When I set my Canon 400/5.6 to a minimum focus distance of 8.5m for speed of focus, that's it. There is no way that the lens will focus on anything closer, but this sigma is different.

I've just run a test in this room, focusing on objects in the room and a mile away through the window.

I find that when the focus is set to 2.6m-10m I can focus on a painting on the opposite wall, as you'd expect, but when I point the camera out of the window it also focuses on objects in the local dock a mile away.

I then switch the limiter to 10m-infinity. As expected it focuses out of the window on the distant dock, but turning around, I can also focus on the painting on the opposite wall. Now my room isn't 10m wide, so why is this.

Is the limiter designed to work over the full range, but with a bias towards the indicated ranges, or have I a problem?

 

[Roy C]

Am I missing something here?

There were times on my trip last week that I realised after the event that I'd been taking photos of a close bird just after some distant flying stuff and I'd forgotten to reset the focus limiter from 10m-infinity. I expected that I'd be out of focus, so quickly reset the limiter switch to 'full' and reshot.

Conversely there were times when I'd been shooting something close with the limiter set to 2.6-10m and started shooting flying birds without changing.

Now I'd expect something called a limiter to actually set limits, but in the case of this lens are these 'hard' or 'soft' limits? When I set my Canon 400/5.6 to a minimum focus distance of 8.5m for speed of focus, that's it. There is no way that the lens will focus on anything closer, but this sigma is different.

I've just run a test in this room, focusing on objects in the room and a mile away through the window.

I find that when the focus is set to 2.6m-10m I can focus on a painting on the opposite wall, as you'd expect, but when I point the camera out of the window it also focuses on objects in the local dock a mile away.

I then switch the limiter to 10m-infinity. As expected it focuses out of the window on the distant dock, but turning around, I can also focus on the painting on the opposite wall. Now my room isn't 10m wide, so why is this.

Is the limiter designed to work over the full range, but with a bias towards the indicated ranges, or have I a problem?

When you have any of the dock settings in force by having C1 or C2 switched on then the lens the focus limiter switch is auto disengaged. In this case whatever the dock setting is for the focus limiter then that will apply (if you have not changed it then it will be on Full). I had the same query until I read the dock manual.
If you want to use the lens focus limiter switch you have to turn C1 C2 switch to the off position.

 

[Barred Wobbler]

Ah, that's the answer then Roy. I've got it switched to C1 and I've not got round to tuning the focus limits yet.

 

[Nick Leech]

Jeff, you say you have been helping a friend set up his Sigma Contemporary. Have you had a chance to do any side-by-side comparisons of IQ at 600mm on the two Sigma lenses? (i.e Sports vs. Contemp).

 

[the black fox]

Jeff, you say you have been helping a friend set up his Sigma Contemporary. Have you had a chance to do any side-by-side comparisons of IQ at 600mm on the two Sigma lenses? (i.e Sports vs. Contemp).

we ran out of time the other night nick ,hopefully this week though ,if he has time available .from the few shots i took with the C its bloody good value for money and not that far behind the sport for what we do .whether its better than the tammy is your choice really nick .any lens of this ilk will need good light to get the best from mine included .i.e i get good results with my 70d in good light ,as soon as it turns grey then the 1d3 beats it hands down .noise being the main bugbear on the smaller sensor

 

[the black fox]

a couple from today ,first time out for a few days due to man flu . gray skies here today so the tern is from the 70d and as i said to nick noisy ,the house martins are from the 1D3 which handles the available light better

 

[Barred Wobbler]

The rain eased this afternoon to be replaced by some hefty showers of rain and hail with some promising breaks in the cloud, so I broke out and went to a nearby cliff for a while.

The first shot is about half of the frame, the second is almost the complete frame, with slight trimming on the right and bottom to improve the composition.

 

[Roy C]

Any of you Sigma sport owners tried the lens with a 1.4x tc yet? I tried my Siggy 'C' out in the garden today and results were very encouraging. I was using a Canon 1.4x tc mkII and was amazed at just how well it AF'd considering it was at f9 (although it fools the Camera into thinking it is f8). Detail held us as well and metering was spot on.

 

[Barred Wobbler]

See my reply to your post on the other thread Roy.

EDIT, I've just taken these photos at the back of the house. The distance to the subject is about 350 yards.

One without the tc and one with. Both unedited jpegs apart from resizing for upload. The second photo has the maximum -20 micro-adjustment on the 7DII. (I wonder if I could add some more with the USB dock).

 

[Roy C]

See my reply to your post on the other thread Roy.

EDIT, I've just taken these photos at the back of the house. The distance to the subject is about 350 yards.

One without the tc and one with. Both unedited jpegs apart from resizing for upload. The second photo has the maximum -20 micro-adjustment on the 7DII. (I wonder if I could add some more with the USB dock).

I see what you mean, it has focused on the hedge behind better than the building I would say. I did read somewhere that somebody had used the in-camara AFMA and and then stacked it with the Sigma dock AFMA but not sure if it worked or not. Well worth a try I would say.

 

[Barred Wobbler]

I see what you mean, it has focused on the hedge behind better than the building I would say. I did read somewhere that somebody had used the in-camara AFMA and and then stacked it with the Sigma dock AFMA but not sure if it worked or not. Well worth a try I would say.

That hedge is in better focus, you can see the sheep mesh on the fence. The frightening thing is that it's another 250 yards behind the focus point!

 

[chrisj123]

hi
ive used kenko 1.4 convertor[the presant model]
also have just returned from skomer island after chasing puffins all day and evening
haven't had much time to process any except this one but i was very pleased with what i saw on the back of camera that i just had to do at least one
the godwit is full frame and shot with above converter if i remember corectly and so is the puffin
https://flic.kr/p/tag6DC
https://flic.kr/p/rva4ev
as can be seen the converter works very well in my opinion
chris

 

[Barred Wobbler]

It's 9pm and the light's shot, but a minute or two ago I tried a bit of micro-adjustment on the dock. I dialled in a random -10 on top of the -20 camera setting and fired off a shot of the farmhouse. It's as grainy as a flour mill at ISO 12,800, but there's enough of an improvement in clarity of the window to encourage me to try to have a proper look at it in the morning when there's some light to work with.

There may be hope.

 

[chrisj123]

hi guys
as you may have guessed ive been to skomer and have a couple of shots of puffins you may like to see

https://flic.kr/p/tkD6fr
https://flic.kr/p/tkAaSc
https://flic.kr/p/tigrFY
https://flic.kr/p/tiihtf
these were shot in the evening in nice but blowing weather
i altered the settings to focus priority and dynamic os in the dock and im pleased with the results
chris

 

[Barred Wobbler]

It's 9pm and the light's shot, but a minute or two ago I tried a bit of micro-adjustment on the dock. I dialled in a random -10 on top of the -20 camera setting and fired off a shot of the farmhouse. It's as grainy as a flour mill at ISO 12,800, but there's enough of an improvement in clarity of the window to encourage me to try to have a proper look at it in the morning when there's some light to work with.

There may be hope.

No hope.

I've persevered and I'm still suffering from rear focusing with a converter. I've even dialled in maximum adjustment in-camera (-20 on the adjuster) and also tuned the lens on the USB dock to give the maximum -20 on the 30m to infinity setting.

I've just taken this photo of a felt roof with the camera set to -20 and the lens set to -20. There's nowhere else to go. Tripod-mounted with the stabiliser turned off. The range is in excess of 30m and I focused on the white dropping next to the seam in the centre of the frame. Several repetitions gave the same result. The subject is still in front of the extreme front edge of the focus zone, rather than where it should be.

I even tried it with a Sigma 1.4 converter in case there was a conflict between my lens and my Canon 1.4x Mk III. No difference.

Bare, the lens is great, but putting a converter on just sends it haywire.

I give up.

 

[the black fox]

it might well be a conflict with the mkiii t.c ,something to do with the electronics i believe ,can you not find a friend that has a mkii to try ,no problems with mine, and saying that i'm still having problems with my 70d close shots superb ,any sort of distance and there useless ,its not the lens as i bolted it back on the id3 this evening and super sharp even over distance .i can feel a e/bay event coming on

 

[micloi]

I had similar issues with the Sigma tc-1401 teleconverter. Back focusing that could not be corrected and issues focusing.

No problems with the Kenko 2x pro 300 or the Canon 1.4x (tried all 3 versions)

 

[Paul - Herts]

i'm still having problems with my 70d close shots superb ,any sort of distance and there useless

Is that with or without the tc Jeff? I realise the best results are going to be with close subjects but there are many occasions when I want to be able to record birds that are unapproachable - marsh harriers spring to mind. Elmley Marshes is a great place to sit in the car and try and photograph them but they are never that close!

 

[Barred Wobbler]

it might well be a conflict with the mkiii t.c ,something to do with the electronics i believe ,can you not find a friend that has a mkii to try ,no problems with mine, and saying that i'm still having problems with my 70d close shots superb ,any sort of distance and there useless ,its not the lens as i bolted it back on the id3 this evening and super sharp even over distance .i can feel a e/bay event coming on

That's what I thought at first, but since I've tried it with the Sigma 1.4 and got the same results, I'm not convinced.